skirblama

Skirblama

Some dude in the NY Times letters the other day had it right: Obama and Clinton are not “divisive” to Democrats as the gasp media wants them to be. Quite the opposite: we, for the first time in forever, are experiencing an “embarrassment of riches” and would probably be just as happy to vote for one as the other when it comes down to it. I know that I, after I’d voted for Obama in my very old school polling place up in Oaktown (you had to draw a line from the front part of an arrow to the back, thereby completing the arrow on a piece of paper, which was then fed into a “vote-a-matic” machine to be somehow manipulated in George Bush’s favor somewhere. Way less tech, by the way, then the giant voting machines we used to vote on back in the ‘burg circa 1980. I left the church (always voting in a church… ) actually feeling good! Good about my vote! I can’t remember the last time that happened.

Why Obama for skirblog?  Its not that I’m anti Clinton. I will even admit to liking Bill Clinton, something that the millions who elected, then re-elected the dude are reluctant to do anymore, and I still like him. I’m not as crazy about Hilary, but I do believe that a woman should run this country.  All countries really.  Unfortunately Hilary disappoints mightily about the freakin’ war, she hems and haws about timetables and coalitions and all the bullshit we’re already hearing, none of which is gonna do a goddamn thing (see how I’ve switched to the rhetoric of political blogging?)  Obama, on the other hand, has come right out and said the war is not working and will not work and he will bring our troops home. Imagine that, a candidate coming out and saying something. Sheet. We need to end this bullshit war immed.

You don’t usually see the skirblog getting’ political, so I will stop.  But wanna hear a great anti-war song from an unlikely source? Then dig out your old Sabbath and give “War Pigs” a whirl. Damn. War Pigs! Here’s where I will admit that I gained my re-appreciation for the song only playing my son’s Guitar Hero game on the XBox 360. This game does, in fact, rock, is more fun when you’re drunk (which is why son rarely plays it) and has made me nostalgic for actually playing the goddamn bass again. Anyone want to start a band? But War Pigs came up for slaughter by me on the false guitar, and while I was mangling the song and getting’ booed by the audience, and worse, getting a crappy score, I paid attention to the lyrics and was really struck by the passion there. Where are all the dark metal, anti-war songs anymore?

I wasn’t the biggest Sabbath fan back in the day, but I didn’t dislike them either. But I’ll tell you who I am the biggest fan of these days: The Kills. I did mention them last post, but at the time wasn’t in the full blown ape shit thralls about them as I am now. I mean Fiery Furnaces type ape shit thralls. Or Deerhoof.  The album, “No Wow,” which came out all the way back in ’05, totally passed me by. Unfortunate for me then, but fortunate for me now. So its all good (Bakery, Inc.) (There is a bakery out here called “the It’s All Good Bakery, Inc., (home of the 7UP Lemon Pound Cake) so I’ve vowed that everytime somebody says, “its all good,” I will immed. follow with “Bakery, Inc.”) The Kills is sex music. Very tense, wrong, raw, buildup and release, also melodic and sweet, bitchy and sassy. What's not to love? It doesn’t hurt matters that the two people involved are good looking and stylish. To put it in kind of juvenile terms, they’re cool. I know I know, but damn it they are. They pose, they’re posers for sure, but when it comes down to it, they also walk the walk, Look at me I’m gushing. It also doesn’t hurt that Alison Mosshart is very attractive and intriguing in a kind of rock star, damaged way. Its hard to get a fix on her, as she seems to hide behind her hair a lot and be constantly photographed out of focus or in fleeting images. I just grabbed a copy of their even earlier release, “Keep on your Mean Side,” and it fukkin’ rules as well. Debating whether to go see them or not on Valentine’s Day in SF. Envisioning a kind of crowded, hot and nasty scene. Still debating. And find myself looking forward to March or April when they say they’re releasing their new one. The two videos for it are way stupid. Check ‘em out.

On a rare movie-going night I treated myself to “I’m not There,” the Todd Haynes semi bio sorta graphical fiction-y Bob Dyan film that’s been nominated for various awards, etc. I was intrigued by its kind of cubist idea of showing the many sides of Bob Dylan’s personality at once by splitting him into different actors, of different ages, genders and races, and also rearranging the sequence of “Dylans” in time, remixing them, etc. Haynes has been known as a detail-freak, a meticulous filmmaker, from his past work like “Far from Heaven,” which was very concerned with getting sets and costumes and film stock and everything it was trying to do right. “I’m not There” has similar concerns and is a very complex and complicated film. A hell of a lot of care and craft that went into it. I mean people still wet themselves thinking about Peter Jackson and “Lord of the Rings,” but I think a film like “I’m not There” is even harder to pull off if you look at all the time periods and evocations it tries to present, in as much detail and  correctness as “Far from Heaven, all with live actors, sets, not so much CGI. Unless I’m wrong.  On a weird, cameo side-note, I was literally taken aback by the sudden presence of Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth in the film. Like, what the f is she doing here? And not only that but she was kind of scary looking, all giant and amplified and not too attractive really, I'm sorry to so superficially say cause I like Kim Gordon, I really do, and think she's attractive (expecially with a bass slung around her) and interesting etc, but she is the oldest Youth I think, unless Renaldo's got her beat. They both are lookin' not young, while Steve Shelly and of course Thurston seem to look unnaturally young. Maybe its the kid hair cuts? But anyway they’re still sonic, so who cares?

What else can I tell you? Lost is back. I now watch something on tv again. And you will have to suffer my Lost theories. I’ve got a couple going right now, and I want to tell you that I formulate my Lost theories without consulting any outside Lost web effluvia. I just watch the shows and ponder. So the big “flash forward” from the end of last season messed everybody up real good. But then it hit me, Jack’s beard that is. And I immediately thought of the great old Star Trek episode, “Mirror Mirror” (and no, I don’t know these episode titles by heart, I have to look them up…) where the crew, due to a transporter malfunction (my favorite plot device) swaps places with their exact “opposites” from an alternate dimension, or better, an evil alternate dimension where peace is war, the Federation is the Empire, and Spock has a beard. Why does Spock have a beard? Because being the logical fellow he is, and not human – usually a plus, its harder to tell who is who. Spock exists more in shades of gray, being more advanced that he is, unlike humans, who try so hard to act civilized, but in the “mirror” easily revert back to snorting, lustful, power made animals. Or is it visa versa? So Spock gets a beard so we can tell which Spock is who. Whom? The trope has been satirized often, including the name of the prog rock band, “Spock’s Beard,” and notably on Futurama when the evil robot Bender gets a tiny, magnetic goatee. So here we are in Lost, in the future when they are back in LA. Yet Jack, inexplicably, has this giant beard. Why? Just cause he’s becoming a drunk, and letting himself go? I don’t think so. I think this signifies Jack is “home” in LA, but its not the right version of LA he should be in. In this LA Jack is a drunk, his dad is still alive and he has a beard. The island of Lost, among other things, may be some kind of portal between dimensions. Other clue? Well in the first scene of the new season, Hurley drives his car through a stack of Papayas in the “Papaya District” of LA, so says the background newscaster that Jack is watching on TV. The Papaya District? Is there such a place in LA? I no think so. Jack needs to get back to the island so he can get back to his real Los Angeles, where he is good… and shaven. Bakery Inc.

Comments

[sam]

for me, war pigs is the best antiwar song ever written and those first 4 sabbath lp's are pretty damn perfect, too.

[Geener]

War Pigs was on heavy rotation years ago with C & I since she stuck it on a road trip tape to the Sierras. I agree with that Sam guy that it is one of the best anti-war songs ever written.